Gun Violence And Mass Misconceptions

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the relation between gun violence and mental disorders and/or diseases. Within we will find if the violence in society is truly an issue, or if the real issue is the mental health and sanity of our society.

“Guns don’t kill people, people do.” This is a well known statement that is oftentimes considered true. However, it is not completely true. Someone who is mentally ill may be unable to make logical decisions and the perception they receive of reality may be tainted by the illness. Gun laws pertaining to those suffering mental illnesses should be more restrictive. Weapons such as guns make committing an act of violence, especially when there are multiple victims, much easier. It is difficult to assess the probability of a person to commit a violent act that harms anyone including himself/herself. Therefore, gun laws need be monitored very closely and made more consistent throughout each state in order to prevent violence that could

In the article, We stop the next Aurora not with gun control but with better mental health by David Dow a tense message is delivered. Dow argues that the two most common policy positions on mass shootings are lacking in thought. One policy is that there should be stricter gun laws and the other is that more people should be able to carry and conceal firearms. Dow states that both of these policies should be discarded. Dow believes that the guns are not the problem, but a person with severe mental illness is the problem .The core message behind the passage is that the mental illness inside of a person is to blame for these tragedies, not the guns in the hand

Metzl, Jonathan M., and Kenneth T. MacLeish. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of

In 2016 there were 33,636 deaths due to injuries by firearms and 73,505 nonfatal injuries. Compared to many of the other countries on the same level of development, the US has soaring numbers relating to homicide rates because of gun violence. For such a developed country you would suspect the citizens to be less prone to start violence. It makes you question if everyone really should be allowed to carry firearms. When laws allow people with mental illnesses to obtain fire-arms it is transparent that there needs to be an alternative. Numerous cartoonists have illustrated their views on the issue of gun control, including Nick Anderson in the political cartoon “The Rise of Guns,”.In this cartoon, Anderson brings to light that it is easier for those diagnosed with a mental illness to legally obtain a gun than to get help from a professional. This political cartoon was created in 2013, during the time there were several school shootings happening around the US.Anderson’s use of arrangement and symbolism to create an emotional appeal is effective in exposing weaknesses in a common argument against everyone’s right to bear arms.

The guilty party from the Virginia Tech University shooting in 2007 was found out to have a mental illness (“Gun Control”). This mass shooting was an incident that inspired more discussion on this topic, for it was one of the most deadly ones in American history. “His history of mental illness had not prevented him from purchasing the semiautomatic pistols used in the shooting” (“Gun Control”). If this man could gain access to these weapons, then other mentally ill people could as well. Consequently, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 was carried out by another person suffering from mental illnesses (“Gun Control”). Even more awareness was drawn to this shooting since it was yet another incident of a mentally ill person carrying out these acts of violence. After this shooting, Barack Obama tried to pass a bill that would ban assault weapons from the public and make the background checks more extensive to include history of mental illness, yet despite his efforts, this bail failed to pass the Senate (“Gun Control”). If mentally ill people were restricted access to guns, these shootings would not have

In light of the mass shooting in Umpqua, Oregon earlier this month, President Obama 's sobering remarks made a crucial point about the nature of Gun Violence in the United States. He remarked, "Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it ... We have become numb to this." As of this day, the United States has a little over one mass shooting every day. It occurs so frequently that people go back to their regular lives after the heavy media coverage is over, only to be outraged once it happens again a week or a month later. Consequently, this problem and the general public sentiment about it has become a stain on the face of this

My primary objective is to prove that there is a direct association between gun violence and mental health. Like most people, I am both appalled and horrified every time I hear about another fatal mass shooting that occurs somewhere in this country. In the news, the words “deranged” or “psychopath” are often attributed to the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. This leads me to suspect that these criminals may suffer from some sort of mental illness. Because of the frequency with which mental illness is constantly associated with gun violence in both the news and pop culture, I believe that mental health is the main cause of the bloodshed created by firearms in this country.

The author's intentions for writing this article was to inspect the common thought that there was a link between mental illness and mass shootings and to disprove it. The author also intended for the readers to realize that is too simple of a solution that has slim to none platform to back it up and that mass shootings need to be looked at as its entire entity rather than nit pick it for a small and simple

There is an assumption that if you understand the minds of serial killers, or persons who commit mass shootings, that it may help prevent mass shootings. “Mass shootings are not on the rise, but have held steady over three decades, randomly clustering in time to trick our brains into finding a pattern of increase where none actually exists” (Shermer 3). Mass shootings happen at varying times without rhyme or reason. Some think that a psychological disorder or some genetic defect could be the reason people commit these crimes. Although we cannot prevent mass shootings, we can educate on how mental health issues can be a precursor to such a tragedy, and how better laws can create a safer environment.

Evidence strongly suggests that mass shooters have some mental illness. Such as Schizophrenia as a condition of hostility, aggression, and projected anger, and included text explaining that, the patient’s attitude is frequently hostile and aggressive, and his behavior tends to be consistent with his delusions. A somewhat similar story can be told about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), another illness frequently associated with gun violence. (Merzl & Macleish, 2015, p.

From 2000 to 2013 there were a total of 160 active shooter incidents and that number is increasing every year. The main reason shootings have become so prominent is because the media has oversaturated the news with pictures of the shooter, their life stories, and their histories of mental illness. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Deitz has repeatedly told the media to localize mass shootings to the area effected because the more they fan the flames across the nation of potential shooters, the greater likelihood that another mass shooting will occur in the following weeks (“Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe 25/03/09”). If the media continues to overflow the minds of their viewers with nothing but 24/7 coverage of mass shooters, then we are increasing the likelihood of someone committing such an atrocity. We need to stop the media from extensively covering these stories of men and woman shooting up the public in order to keep the peace.

In the United States Constitution, the second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. In the last thirty days, our country has seen two of the most deadliest shootings in our nation’s history. The first occurred on October 1 in Las Vegas at a country music festival and the second occurred on November 5 in Texas at a Baptist church. Due to the recent rise in gun violence over the past few years, individuals are finding a correlation to the rise in gun violence and the rise of mental illness. With a call for stricter gun control laws arising, an individual’s mental health is becoming more and more relevant.The rise in gun violence is caused by the rise of mental health in America.

As mass shootings have occurred in the United States the focus on mental illness is held in account for multiple school shootings. Mentzl & MacLeish (2014) share the diagnoses of a gunman involved in the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, in December of 2012. Adam Lanza, was diagnosed by media as having schizophrenia which he suffered from and was not treated for. Lanza’s crime which he committed was a mass murder of 20 children and 6 adults with a semiautomatic weapon. It is reported on how mental illness had played in a role with the incident such as this. Mentzl & MacLeish (2014) share the links of gun violence and mental illness are comparative in the aftermath of mass shootings due to psychiatric histories of those who are the assailants. It is reported that nearly 60% of perpetrators involved in mass shooting displayed acute paranoia, delusions and depression before committing their crimes.

Information about gun violence isn’t particularly necessary to understanding the Constitution and the Federalist Papers but the prevalence of gun violence and the limitations that exist today (or lack of) are directly related to the element of regulation that is present in the 2nd Amendment. Gun violence directly feeds into discussion over what to do about firearms in our country. There are countless ways to begin discussing gun violence but for this section I wish to briefly go over basic statistics, mental health, the media, and existing measures attempting to limit violence.